Earth 18 with Egypt - It has been a long while since I played and posted here!

[Harv]

Not going bad at all. Some positive early warfare. Not sure about temples and city walls. Maybe due to barbs I guess.

Greeks or Indians next? Archer defences is always nice. Greek land looks horrible.

Few barb issues down south but chariots are good for axes.

Are the AI more crammed in on Earth maps?

Don't hold back your capital growth. What was your thinking on Helipolis?

Temples? I had an event for 30 turns of +1 happy and this was expiring and I decided a quick run for temples would fix my problem. So we will be back to normal in 15 turns and we will pick up a few resources with Calendar.

Walls? I think I need only one for the Attacko gambit (loading positive events) and I ran out of things to build and already felt over expanded and too many units and did not know what to build at the time. At least they are cheap, 38 hammers, less than a war chariot.

Greeks are next. They built two cities on my border, near where I was planning to build. It looks like they built a copper mine for me! We can’t let them have hoplites, can we?

The drawback is their land is rough. It will take a long time to go through Anatolia. Then it’s still a long haul to Athens. I might grab those cities and call it- I have not decided.

It also looks horrible, but that can be fixed a bit.

Yes, the AI is very crowded on the Earth 18 map. Well, Europe is very crowded. We have a few one city AI’s that just don’t do well.

There is Rome, Greece, Spain, France, England, and Germany.

I’m told Russia will feel more like a Civ game.

 

[Harv]

Heliopolis? I was planning to build by the copper, but the Greeks got there first with Knossos. Maybe I will take them out before they get to Iron Working. I can’t think of a good counter to Hoplites.

Elephantine is also a junk city. I should have settled one east on the hills for easier defense. However, it will fog bust just a little bit easier. I will have one worker there for a while clearing out forest and jungle for another junk tile.

 

[Harv]

What idea do you have for the first Great General? This will show up when I attack Greece. I think I will make a super swordsman.

 

[Harv]

you can upload the pictures directly to the thread

Dude! This advice is a winner! Now I wonder what the limits are for storing files! Anyway, I went back to all the posts above and added pictures and moved save files. Enjoy!

Can't imagine what raging barbs would do.

I added the pictures to post #12! Enjoy!

So I have a story going up to Turn 104. Now I have 48 turns to describe to get to Turn 152, or 320 BC. That will catch my story up to my saves. It should take me another day or two.

 

[Gumbolt]

Wow that is a lot of barbs in those pictures. Probably caused the AI major issues too.

Yeah not many great city spots to settle. Tech rate on larger maps seems so slow. Mix of emperor and map size. Plus maybe Ai limited to one city. If you have ivory that makes phants/catapults a nice easy go to war option. You can land by sea and capture European capitals nice and easily.For now war chariot window is still wide open.

 

[Harv]

Wow that is a lot of barbs in those pictures. Probably caused the AI major issues too.

Yeah not many great city spots to settle. Tech rate on larger maps seems so slow. Mix of emperor and map size. Plus maybe Ai limited to one city. If you have ivory that makes phants/catapults a nice easy go to war option. You can land by sea and capture European capitals nice and easily.For now war chariot window is still wide open.

Your comment about the War Chariot window still being wide open indicates we had the past 40 to 60 turns to use it, but didn’t. Granted, Turns 88 to 104 were about keeping the Barbarians at bay.

A combination of Barbarians and Map have been giving the AI issues.

England, France, Spain, and Rome have issues with limited space. Germany has some space. Russia is normal. Greece has issues with Alexander.

Persia and Arabia had a bad neighbor.

Japan has issues with Toku. Mongolia has issues with Khan and bad land. China is very powerful. India has a bunch of jungle.

The New World is the New World. Inca can’t expand. USA has an issue with Monty. So do the Aztecs.

Some challenges are more easily overcome by a human player than others.

Right now, I believe my playbook will look very similar for Egypt, Persia, and Arabia. Persia has the advantage of already having Iron and being very close to copper.

All those battles makes me think of a question. I wonder if the odds quoted on the tool tip are accurate. They match my hand calculation based on the assumption that the probability of winning each round is constant. However, I am showing well over 100 battles and only lost 2 Warriors. A lot of them were at 99.9%, but some were 95%.

I might try to count them for fun - but I also have to catch up my game!

 

[Harv]

Turns 104 to 120 - The Age of Iron

It looks like we are finally making progress against the tide of Barbarians. We just need a few more War Chariots, is all. I think I have a total of 11. 3 of them are in Thebes.

Spoiler :

Taking that hill north of the Ruins of Susa was also a turning point. Those are shock troops I put up there. I actually made one or two Shock Chariots.

Looking at later pictures, it was a turning point. The Barbarians did not want to mess with a Shock Chariot and avoided that hill. They also liked to march down that valley where they were more easily killed. I often had another War Chariot waiting on the desert hill north of Persepolis to close that route. They might have done well to go to the Ruins, but from there, the land is wide open. The position on the hill gave lots of view. The desert hill even further north expanded the view even more. It gave a lot of insight into what was coming, and therefore time.

Maybe just building that city to claim the Copper would have been simpler and quicker, and save me trouble down the road. We are slowly grinding our way to Iron Working. (Hierro = Iron)

With Islam spreading to all of my cities, maybe it is time to convert. It also gives me one more Happy.

I don't know who founded Hinduism. I think it is somewhere in the New World.

Turn 107 - Great Prophet Sojuner Truth somewhere, I think China. I did not hear of any shrine being built and China does not have a religion, and has been wonder hogging instead. They probably settled him.

The Barbarians are now starting to spawn Archers. I had the Hero of Persepolis, Susa, and Mecca guarding Medina and they didn't stand much of a chance. Even when I look at the picture, there was still another War Chariot coming, in case I lost the battle. I think War Chariot 1 was the backup plan, because I could not get somebody there in time to pick up experience points. Given the sheer number of Barbarians that keep showing up, this probably does not matter.

Turn 116 - We finally met Genghis Khan of the Mongols!

Technology
Turn 117 - Iron Working

That's it! We made it to Iron Working and have access to metal. I kind of messed it up the next few turns on micromanagement, because I think I'm smarter than the AI and was building a Settler in Persepolis and forgot to switch over to the Iron. So that cost about 6 hammers, less 3 gold.

Meanwhile, on the Barbarian front, they founded a city in the Middle Nile.

 

[Harv]

Turns 120 to 136 - The Wedding and the Mesquite al Haram

Swords seem to be a slightly better counter to Archers than War Chariots. Of course, it depends on quite a few things. If there are lots of first attacks, then maybe the War Chariot has an edge. In open Terrain, the War Chariot might also have an edge for being able to retreat. The sword might still get beat up a bit and need backup in that space.

Spoiler :

Turn 123 - We researched Sailing. This was yet another gambit. Sailing makes it easier to reach foreign civilizations and we have lots of cities and foreign trade routes available for a bonus. Medina also needs a Lighthouse and has a whole bunch of production and can make a very late bid at the Great Lighthouse. If we make it, we make it! If we don't, we still get some gold, plus a bit of revenue (5 gpt) from the trade routes.

The next turn (I forgot this turn) we opened borders with India, Rome, and Germany. The Greeks hate us for some reason.

We started research towards the Alphabet. It leads to Currency and gives us the option of converting hammers to beakers.

Did I say the Greeks hate us for some reason?

I'm really sorry about the Spanish. As well as I understand it (very limited) this is the wedding event between Greek and Egyptian noble families. The tensions are rising as they were deciding whether to follow traditional rites or Islamic. The Greeks already hate us, so what the heck - For 15 gp, we get a bonus Happy for 30 turns. This bonus expires on Turn 155.

Looking through the News, there was a Monsoon in the Desert City of Timbuktu. Hang on while I look up climate statistics in Timbuktu. These people seem to have no luck. At least the Evil Egyptian Empire is leaving them alone.

There is still a Barbarian front near Thebes. That did not stop me from founding Memphis on Turn 125, 875 BC.

Turn 127 - The Chinese founded Nanjing. I think that means "South Capital." It might be their fourth city. Somebody @earthy was asking how the Chinese were doing in terms of cities.

Meanwhile, we continued attacking the Barbarian City of Liguria in the Middle Nile.

We could not let the city be reinforced! I actually promoted an Amphibious War Chariot. I don't know how that works. Are they pulled by hippos?

Here, we finally take the city.

I would have preferred a location 1 square further east, because that would have given me the Incense. It means at some time, I will put a junk city on the Desert Hill to claim it. At lest with a plantation on the Incense, it should be able to pay for itself.

Turn 132 - The Chinese built the Temple of Artemis. I believe all these wonders are in Beijing, along with that Great Prophet.

Turn 134 - We got a Great Prophet (Saint John) in Mecca and he built our Shrine. So far, it yields 8 gpt.

Turn 135 - The Chinese have founded Xian. Is that their fifth city?

In more important news, the Greeks founded Knossos right where we were planning to place a city to claim the copper. This means the Settler we were building in Persepolis will go to the junk site we mentioned earlier. The Settler in Thebes will also go to a junk site.

It's a problem a few swords should be able to solve.

Actually, I wanted that city on the river 1 square to the southwest, but I will take it where it lies, soon enough.

The body count now stands at 89 Warriors and 14 Archers. The vast majorty of them are Barbarians.

 

[Harv]

Turns 136 to 152 - The Great Lighthouse

Turn 138 - We opened borders with Russia. We might as well. We have 7 cities now and could use another trade partner.

Turn 139 - Tensions with the Greeks escalate. They wanted us to stop trading with the Germans, when the entire point is to gain an economic advantage. We are patiently waiting for them to develop Knossos for us.

Apparently, War Chariots are very powerful against Axes.

Spoiler :

This should give some idea how much time we had to prepare for Spears and Axes. We got to Iron Working on Turn 117 and I believe this is the first Axe I have seen, on Turn 139.

Turn 140 - Alphabet

As soon as we researched the Alphabet, Catherine wanted to trade Archery for Iron Working, along with a few other favors. I think we can do better than that. Checking the Diplomacy screen, we seem to be far ahead, so far.

The only deal we can get is Archery. Hindsight says I should have cut a deal with Mansa Musa. I suppose the harm will turn out to be only a little bit.

Turn 143 - We founded Heliopolis in a silly location. I had a Settler and another one coming, and no place to put it. I actually want to push further into Africa and eventually get at those metals. With Gold, Silver, and Gems, and a Forge, that's +6 Happy! I'm looking at another +3 for the Calendar.

Turn 147 - We cut our deals. India broke us with Meditation. Go figure. We traded Writing to India for Meditation. Then we turned around to trade Writing to China for Archery. Hindsight says I should have taken the deal with Mali for Animal Husbandry.

Turn 148 - We founded Elephantine in another silly place. I should have settled one more further east and I am morning the loss of one plains and one plains hill. I could have been on a plains hill for an extra hammer and much needed defense against the barbarians.

Who am I trying to fool? We are attacking barbarians, not defending!

Turn 149 - We finished research on Mathematics. This is where the deal with China could haunt us. They will also be able to research Mathematics and continue their Wonder Spree and get the Hanging Gardens. I am planning to build them..... somewhere. Writing opens up several things for them - and they are a pretty rich empire.

From here, I decided for a quick run at Priesthood and build Temples in the original five cities. They are going to have a problem with happiness on Turn 155. This was just a two-turn diversion.

Meanwhile, we actually got the Great Lighthouse!

We have a few coastal cities. A lot of Europe is coastal. A lot of Africa is trash, but we can build up coastal trash.


Turn 151 - We finished research on Priesthood. From here we went on to the Calendar, because we have three resources we can develop. I thought this would be good before Currency.

This gets us current with my game, at Turn 152.

I didn't write down a body count. I will get one in the next round. I should also have half the language issue fixed.

EDIT: I just realized. The year is 320 BC. How close are we to running Alexander's conquests in reverse?

 

[Harv]

Turns 152 to 164 - Georgy Zuk-Thoth and Alexander the Great

Here we go! The first thing we did was declare war on Alexander. We had long disputes going. Argos and Knossos come to mind. We also don't want to fight too many Phalanxes, because there really isn't much of a counter to them. Elephants. Elephants are a counter to Phalanxes, but we don't have Elephants yet.

Right now, they don't have a good counter to a CR3 Sword.

Spoiler :

The other defending archer was not quite as tough, but neither was Espada 2. Still, having an advantage while attacking a city is really good!

We still won handily, and captured Knossos.

We also picked up three new Workers!

That also means it looks like they built a road all the way to their empire. It saves us the effort of building one. We can build a shorter one later. It also means they had access to copper and their Phalanxes. I was wondering if they built one. Hindsight indicates they had Iron Working all along - or at least very recently.

We picked up Argos the next turn. A single Archer on flat land was no match for our other CR3 Swordsman.

The land in Anatolia is rough and this buys Alexander lots of time, but we finally got there. Unfortunately, it was guarded by a Phalanx. I already said we really have no answer to a Phalanx, except lots and lots of troops.

Also, it looks like Isabella built the Church of the Nativity. A later look indicates she also built the Oracle. The Great Spy indicates China got another Great Person. It looks like Quin used him to start a Golden Age on Turn 155. I don't remember how long Golden Ages last on Epic. It will be a bit painful watching Wonders get built while we are warmongering.

Meanwhile, our Roman brothers in Islam have requested help in their fight against Germany. I thought about it and what the heck. We will send Horses. They can build Chariots. It won't help them much. They already have Iron and Praetorians. I think it's safe to assume they have Iron by now.

Turn 158 - 230 BC - An Archer attacked my scout Chariot on a hill and won. We counter-attacked. Our losses so far stand at 2 Warriors and 1 War Chariot. We lost unlucky Carro #7.

Turn 160 - 200 BC - We finally got to Calendar. Now we grind our way to Currency. I am told this is the tech for fixing economies. It was looking kind of bad at the start of this round with the extra conquests, but the economy seems to be holding.

We were also finally ready to attack Corinth. Fortunately most of the defenders are Chariots. It just means we need overwhelming numbers of units so that we can finish off what we wound. The main defender is that Phalanx. He is backed up by an Archer.

We lost this fine soldier. His purpose was to die - and die gloriously he did. The Phalanx was reduced to 1.0/5 Strength. So I call this well played, indeed.

Next up to die is Espada 4. He drew the short straw......

....except he didn't die. He defeated the defending Arquero with 0.5/6 Strength. He will live on to die another day.

After this, it was a bunch of easy battles. We got a Great General way back on Turn 152. In honor of the Egyptian Gods, we renamed him Georgy Zuk-Thoth.

At greater than 99% probability of winning, he sure got his butt kicked. He got reduced to 2.4/6.

It was a few more battles of taking out Greek Chariots. It looks like we took out 4 in total. Then we sent in an Axeman for the coupe de grace on the heavily wounded Phalanx. We captured Corinth. The Greeks have Sparta and Athens next.

The Roman-German War is probably also generating Great Generals. Jean d'Arc appeared on Turn 161 and Subutai on Turn 163. They are probably cutting each other to shreds. Marconi the Great Engineer also appeared on this turn. It was probably for the French who probably built the Pyramids.

Here is what Athens and Sparta look like. It looks pretty ugly. It might be a bit of a meat grinder getting through all of that. The end might be in sight!

 

[lymond]

Placing your pics in spoiler tags really helps with page loading

 

[Harv]

Placing your pics in spoiler tags really helps with page loading

Okay, I can fix that. If they stay in spoilers, they don’t get loaded until you open them?

 

[Harv]

Turns 164 to 172 - The Fall of Athens

The historical lesson from this round is around this time, the Athenian Navy was very important. We are finding out why. I remember reading somebody's article on Quora about something similar for Italy. It is a peninsula, three sides surrounded by water. The other side is mountains. Looking at it another way, it is an island. This similarly applies to Greece.

Going back to the game and counting tiles, it is a full 8 turns to march from Corinth in Asia Minor to Athens. I was already told the better way to go was by water. Three Galleys and I can land 6 Swordsmen right on top of Athens and the AI has very little time to respond. We could have built these Galleys in Thebes, Mecca, and Medina, and we had Mathematics and could have built a Fort at (2,2) to serve as the Suez Canal and move them into the Mediterranean.

However, I did not have the patience - and am paying the price for it: Time. 8 Turns marching from Corinth to Athens. I wonder what units Alexander will be building to defend himself.

Let's make sure it's not more Phalanxes.

Spoiler :

Carro 6 is going to die for this, but we took out their supply of Iron. I chose the Shock Chariot, because it had the best chance against that Spear. We also took out the Chariot that attacked us in the Hills, then escaped. That left one Chariot to threaten those two Workers who might try to rebuild that mine.

Mansa Musa converted to Christianity a few turns ago and wanted us to convert. We are overwhelmingly majority Islam. So is our part of the world. He has one job: Tech Broker to Christiandom.

Turn 165 - The Greeks retaliated. For some reason, they chose to attack with their Chariot. I think that reason is the Spear was slated as a Defensive unit and fortifying. It would have been a decently easy kill, then run back to Athens to claim the XP prize. It would have been like running a Marathon to and from the Plains of Marathon! It took them two Chariots to defeat our one War Chariot. Carro 6 was slated to die. Its time has come. We cut their supply of Iron.

Maybe they were saving the Spear to protect the Worker rebuilding the Iron Mine. Nope, it wasn't that, either. AI logic is not making sense to me.

In other news, China's Golden Age has ended. It seems it was only about 9 Turns or so. Hmm. I forgot to check how much teching they were able to do in that time.

Turn 166 - They saved that Spear to attack us in the hills! It should have been a very easy kill, a Combat 1 Spear against a Combat 3 War Chariot. Amazingly, or War Chariot prevailed and we no longer have to worry about that Spear! Now Athens is defended by City Walls, a couple of Archers, and some Chariots.

Meanwhile, Thebes spawned a Great Prophet. I was hoping for the Great Scientist, but Great People Points are limited and we got the St. Paul, instead. St. John (we are getting all the Christian Great Prophets) founded the Mosque. Since there was not much to do with St. Paul, I settled him in Mecca, which will become a money laundering city, with that Mosque and now settled Great Prophet. I don't know if that was the best move.

We also met Isabella. She hates us.

Turn 167 - The march continues. Catherine converted to Christianity. She hates us, too. Somewhere in the world, I have not figured out where, Judaism has been founded. I do not know if this means Code of Laws has been researched, or Theology. Was there a Great Prophet spawned recently? I don't see one in my pictures or notes.

Turn 169 - Asoka is pleased with us and begs for Mathematics as a gift, but we decided to hang on to it. Isn't this backwards? Didn't we get the so-called Arabic numerals from India? They are so much better than Roman numerals - or Egyptian. Didn't they produce some brilliant mathematicians? Stay tuned for my next Earth18 game!

Turn 170 - We finally researched Currency! The economy should get better at this point. The Marketplace will get us another point of Happiness from the Ivory. This will come in handy very soon, because we just built the Hanging Gardens of Persopolis.

This might help a little bit in a culture battle with India for some Spices.

We started research towards Construction. By the time we finish with it, we might be done with warfare for a while, but it opens up attacks with Elepults.

Somebody is going to talk me into starting an Elepult war, right? This is better than trying to hog the wonders? Somebody is going to tell me the Wonders are not worth it, right?

Meanwhile, Alexander had a surprise for us. He ran at our Archers defending Corinth on Hills - and won!

He will be able to reinforce that fairly quickly with all those troops he has in Sparta. The troops in Athens are trapped and waiting for that final battle that decides the rest of the war.

Turn 171 - The Battle of Athens

I chose Espada 3 to battle the City Garrison Archers. With CR2, he appears to have a slight edge.

.....and he won!

Next up was CR2 Swordsman 1 de Mecca against a not quite so tough Archer for 66.4% and he also won. We are rolling well again!

With the tough battles out of the way, we had Zuk-Thoth take out the biggest Chariot he could find. We took out three more Chariots with CR2 and CR1 Swordsmen, then one more with our famous Carro 1, who always seems to win battles. Carro 1 triumphantly rolled into Athens.

With all that money, we went running to Mansa Musa for a deal.

We promptly switched over to Hereditary Rule and Slavery and whipped out those Marketplaces. I wonder what Mansa Musa is going to do with all that money. He will probably grab another tech to sell. Isn't he awesome?

This is a long-running war with the Greeks. I think it has another round of 8 Turns to go before it's finally over. Happiness is not going to be a problem for a while. We have Markets, Monarchy - and now Wine. We will soon be limited by Health again.

The wars have been going amazingly well. Our losses are minimal. So far, I count:

2 Warriors (lost trying to find the Source of the Nile)
1 Archer (lost defending Corinth)
2 War Chariots (one lost of a Barbarian Archer, one gloriously sacrificed to take out Greek Iron)
1 Swordsman (gloriously lost taking Corinth the first time)

Sparta and Corinth are both on hills. Taking these cities is going to be a grind, again. Meanwhile, Alexander has a Settler and two Archers running around looking for a place to settle and save Greek civilization.

 

[Harv]

Turns 172 to 184 - Retaking Corinth

The short story is I made a mess of this war by allowing Alexander way too many turns to build Archers on Hills to defend his cities. I allowed him an extra four turns by backing out of Sparta and retaking Corinth. On the other side, we are in a position to finally start an Elepult war. The economy also seems to be in very good shape, in spite of the war and war-time production. It looks like we still run a surplus at 60% slider. That indicates we have way too few cities.

Spoiler :

I thought I was going to lose a Swordsman or two with this stunt, but I thought it would be good to prevent another Archer and Chariot from entering Corinth.

We wiped them out and Alexander let the Swordsman live. We promoted one with Cover and the other with Medic and moved them on the hill with the reinforcements marching in.

Meanwhile, we made another deal with Mansa Musa.

Code of Laws gives us access to Caste System - and more interestingly, Courthouses. We can eventually start attacking that city maintenance. Right now, it does not seem to be killing us for some reason. (I can think of two: Cottages and Marketplaces)

Turn 178 - We finished research on Construction. We can eventually build catapults and knock down defenses and trash stacks of defenders.

Turn 180 - We finished research on Horseback Riding. Now we have access to Elephants! They have 8 Strength and they are not subject to shock troops. It will take me a while to build them.

This time, we start grinding towards Aesthetics. For some reason, I still feel like a wonder hog, as if Elepults are not enough.

Meanwhile, somewhere, it looks like another St. John founded Confucianism.

Turn 183 - We finally made it to Corinth and start working on their stack of defenders.

We are still blessed with incredible luck.

Espada 2 beat a CG1 Archer (on a hill) with 63.0%.
Zuk-Thoth beat an Archer at 94.4%.
Sword 1 beat an Archer at 61.3%.
Sword 4 beat an Archer at 65.4%
Sword 6 beat a Chariot at 96.1%.

It's about a 23% probability of winning all these battles - and we took down heavily defended Corinth without a loss. So Alexander might be smashing those dice with a hammer - or those numbers might not necessarily be accurate.

Also call me foolish if you wish. The stack of one Shock Phalanx and 5 Guerrilla Archers on Hills in Sparta made me seek out an easier target and return with more Swords and maybe some Catapults.

 

[Gumbolt]

Hanging gardens is a good wonder if you can get it.
GLH not bad for this map.
Building wonders on it's own won't win games.
The minute Alex started spamming metal units you wanted catapults and phants. His UU makes your WC useless.

I would of taken a ceasefire here after taking the first 2 cities. Leaving units around AI cities while at war means the AI will spam archers/metal units. If you can't take a city best not to approach it. Indians were a much softer target. 60-96% odds are pretty good. RNG means anything could happen.

 

[Harv]

I suppose the advantage of the WC is speed - when there are no spears. I think you would have attacked Alex about 50 turns sooner, while the window was still open.

Something I am learning from this game is 10% is also pretty good - if there are more units to continue the attack. Most likely we lose our brave swordsman, but he is likely to do some damage. So if the opponent has a 50% strength advantage, he still gets at least five rolls, at 40% each, to damage that phalanx. I can expect two or three hits from that, for one third to obe half hit points and an easier battle later. If we don’t follow up, then he gets rest and experience and comes back even more dangerous.

I backed off from Sparta because I was not sure if 11 units were enough to wipe out 1 Phalanx and 5 Archers.

They are not building metal units any time soon.

 

[Harv]

I forgot to ask:

What do you think I should do with the next Great General I get? Sieging Sparta might be enough to pop one.

Where should I build the Heroic Epic? I will look for a city that produces lots of hammers. I have Persepolis in mind.

 

[Gumbolt]

6-7 defenders normally means you want an over powering unit or catapults. 1 turn bombard with 4-5 catapults. Then attack. Especially when his UU has +75 against melee. Take peace with Greeks for now.

Normally medic unit if you plan to war here long term. With catapults and phants I would say that seems logical.

Your hammer city is Persepolis. Albeit it won't grow much more. Otherwise a captured capital with food/hammers would be better? Persepolis should have 21-22 base hammers. 4-5 turns for phants.

Time to head for Moscow? AI seem pretty backwards here. Get building catapults. He has a decent capital and green land.

Elephantine is a horrible city. Farming plains is an absolute waste as each new pop gobbles up 2 food. Library is pointless. It has little or no science and could only run 1 scientist.

Sword and aqueduct builds are not much use either. Catapults are your main priority. Your sword/chariots stack will be ample for Russians. Mix in 1-2 phants. You want 6-8 catapults.

 

[Harv]

Turn 184 to 196 - The Fall of Sparta

Sparta must be destroyed!

Turn 185 - We finished research on Aesthetics. Admittedly, we are teching at a very fast rate - to me, anyway.

As for that Shock Phalanx guarding Sparta, it crossed the Danube River. It is fair game!

Spoiler :

Carro 1 just keeps winning. That is the main threat keeping us from destroying the Greeks once and for all. Now we have about 5 Archers to deal with. Is it my imagination - or is that quite a stack of Swords?

For Polythiesm, we cut a deal with the Germans. We gave them some gold and Priesthood. Maybe they will like us for a little while longer.

Or this is my party night and I will (irl) wake up and wonder what the heck I did and why my friends are yelling at me on Civfanatics. (@Hygro - Do you remember saying I would be a good drinking buddy or hangover buddy way back when - Even if I did not understand the economic subject you were discussing?)

We also signed Open Borders with Mansa Musa, for what it is worth - only because I had a few irl. Maybe we pick up a trade route. I don't think OB with MM is going to kill us at this point.

Turn 186 - This must be one of the reasons I have been building City Walls when I really will never need them!

Well, Islamic pilgrims = money. I picked up some lessons in economics.

Turn 187 - We captured Gaul.

Here is another pointless city in Africa. It provides us with Gems and +1 Happiness.

Turn 188 - We met Elizabeth of England. It looks like she is using all those Open Borders to explore the Old World. We opened trade and took this as an opportunity buy Monothiesm. Sure, what the heck. Another 280g down the drain.

We also finished research on Literature.

Turn 188 - 220 AD - Somebody built the Mausoleum. I do not know who. I usually suspect the Chinese. I think it is most likely on this continent. I really doubt it is in the New World. So we won't have long Golden Ages until we grab it.

It also looks like there was a slave revolt in Guangzhou. This is one of the nice things about being Spiritual. Out of 15 Turns, we might be in Slavery only 5 of those turns whipping buildings. I plan to abuse this feature!

Turn 192 - We researched Drama. We press on towards Music, hoping to grab a free Great Artist.

We also met Louis. This means we have met all of the AI's on the Old World - Except Toku, who does not matter so much.

Turn 194 - We finally attack Sparta!

I pressed a wrong key on the way there. It happens with a large stack of units. Carro 1 was one space ahead and accidentally attacked Sparta instead of moving west. For some reason, Carro 1 keeps winning. So it accidentally killed an Archer with about 5% probability, or something ridiculous like that. I did not want to reload a turn over that. I have not done any of that so far.

The Assault of Sparta:

Zuk-Thoth won agains Arquero at 85.9%
Espada 2 won versus Arquero at 63.8%
Sword 6 lost versus Arquero at 57.7%
Sword 1 won verus Arquero at 64.3%
Espda 4 won versus the last Arquero. There were only 4.

So we captured Sparta and destroyed the Greek civilization. We never found their last Settler.We also spawned our second Great General. We named him Bastisarius.

The Greeks are gone. We have a huge stack of Swords wondering who to destroy next. We also have one War Elephant and a few Catapults wondering where to strike next. We don't have much of a navy. I built two Galleys, because I saw one when we captured Gaul and suspected it might go after our favorite fishing spots.

The Great General - I kind of want to honor Carro 1, who keeps winning - and use it as a great Medic, if that is possible.

We are also one turn away from Music. Based on the Diplomacy screen, I think it is very likely we spawn the Great Artist. Most likely, I will use him to spawn a Golden Age. Should I do this right away, or should I wait until I reach a population cap? Do we have a better use?

Sorry that I did not end the war with the Greeks and start an Elepult war with the Russians. Another 12 turns passed.

And yes, Elephantine is still a horrible city. So is Heliopolis.

 

[Gumbolt]

Fair enough. I would of razed Gaul. Horrible city. Needs a lighthouse to be useful. Lighthouse before granary? 3f2c lakes? Mine to speed this up. Most of the cities on this world map are pretty much junk.

Cathy is in war mode. You are her worst enemy. Your power rating might deter her? Other Ai are already at war so she might see them as weaker targets. Not sure I would wait for this. I would bombard and see what odds your cr3 swords have. If below 60% try weaking with catapults first.

I would be building more catapults. Not sure why you want theatres, markets and temples. Same for the court house. The city is -4.6 gold a turn maintenance. If it was -8-9 I might build a court house.

I would use great general on warrior in Argos. Str 1 and then 3x medic promo. You want the medic unit to be weakest in stack so you don't lose him as a defender. I would probably still attack in next 3-4 turns. Make sure Knosos has 1-2 defenders. Scout out Cathy for her stack?